There's Much Ado About Stench The Mulch Maker's Neighbors Are Asking Dep To Stifle Odors Coming From The Bethlehem Township Site.

June 03, 1998|by DARYL NERL, The Morning Call

Something is rotten on Freemansburg Avenue. Literally.

And Bethlehem Township residents, including police Chief Joseph Barner, are complaining about the stench.

The offending odors are coming from a mulch-making operation at the former Bethlehem Steel limestone quarry. For six years, American Supplies of New Jersey has been grinding up dead tree stumps and roots, mixing them with leaves and partially composting them on site.

People who live as far as two miles away say the stench, at times, is unbearable and they want the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to put a stop to it or at least force the company to control the odors.

"It smells like manure from a chicken farm," said Charlotte McConnell, a Bethlehem Township resident who lives about a mile from the giant compost pile. "It makes me sick to my stomach. It gives me a sore throat and irritates my eyes and nose."

McConnell said she has been complaining about American Supplies for about five years but the state has done little to help. Most of the time, the odors are mild during the day, but grow worse at night, she said.

May 19 was the worst night yet, McConnell said. She reported the smell to the DEP at 7:30 p.m. and was still working to get it out of her house at 1:30 a.m.

Barner said he filed an official police complaint with the DEP a week ago, looking for department inspectors to visit the site. His action was prompted by complaints from residents, including his wife, and a concern voiced by a truck driver from the township who noticed a heavy volume of tractor-trailer traffic entering the old quarry.

DEP intends to visit the operation sometime this week, according to department spokesman Mark Carmon. The investigators will review the operation and determine ways to help the company control odors.

The DEP also will talk with American Supplies about the need to apply for permits to continue composting, Carmon said. The state did not require the company to have a permit when it began its operation in the former quarry in 1992.

Now it is required for composting operations of at least five acres, according to Gary Diaz, sales manager for American Supplies. Diaz said when this recent round of smell complaints were made, the company voluntarily stopped accepting leaves and will continue that practice until after the DEP's visit.

The leaves are rich in nitrogen, which allows decomposing organisms to thrive and gives the mulch a dark brown color, Diaz said. They are ground in with tree stumps and roots and allowed to age naturally.

"What happens if you have too much of the leafy material and it gets wet, you get an odor attached to it," Diaz said.

Every day the company has continued to truck out about eight trailer loads of mulch, which is sold to nurseries and landscape contractors, Diaz said. Very little, if any, is sold retail.

Complaints about truck traffic were addressed a few weeks ago by the DEP, Diaz said. Apparently, some people were suspicious of material being trucked into American Supplies because they look like garbage trucks.

No solid municipal waste is accepted at American Supplies, Diaz said. The DEP cited American Supplies in December for allowing odors from the compost pile to leave the site.

Barner said he wanted to inform the DEP to make sure that the company is operating within the law and the confines of its permit.

"If it's not, they should stop the operation," he said. "It's as simple as that."